Am I one of them?

A hypocrite, I mean. I really don’t want to be. But I can feel it closing in. Is it nobler to admit it, or to feign that it’s not happening? The truth is always the way, right?

Here’s what I’m saying: after whining about how people have to learn to interpret fiction onscreen differently than the fiction in their heads, I need to point out that this Entertainment Weekly cover of Divergent is not doing it for me. I don’t …I don’t know if that’s my Tris.

Is this a fair opinion? Probably not. After all, I have screeched about how books and films or television need to exist. But I think what’s missing from the tall, busty, defiant girl in these pictures is …Abnegation.

Do you know what I mean? Part of the whole point of Tris, what makes her interesting, was that she was not trained for this. In fact, her entire life up to this point has been about choosing everything other than what Dauntless is. That’s what makes her unlikely in this scenario. That’s what makes her an interesting character – she might not be suited for this at all. She’s tiny not because it’s cute and people want to protect her – but because she has to protect herself.

I don’t see any traces of this same vulnerability in Shailene Woodley. I could be wrong. She seems born for Dauntless, and I don’t see that same conflict within her, of “maybe I can’t do this”.

Of course, this could have nothing to do with Woodley herself. It could have to do with the filmmakers and their interpretation, a studio that wanted a bankable star, marketing to people who haven’t read the books. But it’s just not hitting my pleasure centres. As my astute friend KNB points out – why, in every instance of the Dauntless outside that we’ve seen, is it SUNNY? Shouldn’t there be some darkness and shadow? Some fear?

So I guess I’m a hypocrite. Either that, or I don’t have enough imagination to see that this Tris will still be as unsure and unsuitable as she’s supposed to be in order to make me as interested in the story as I feel like a big a fan of the books should be.

I do covet those pants, however. I might need to get knives to store in such pants.